I needed to do a photoshoot for my website and I wanted to get some pics taken at a beach. Rottingdean Beach was recommended, so I agreed that it would be worth trying out even though I had never been there before – and that’s what makes the story even better 🙂
After a full morning of taking photos in the FREEZING cold wind, we were due to leave the beach within the next 15-20 minutes. We were all completely windswept, the air was icy, and the sky kept threatening another downpour, but I asked if we could get a couple more shots further down the beach if possible. I kept sensing that we needed to take a walk a bit further down the beach to see what was there. We nearly didn’t bother to walk that way because we were running out of time, but we decided to push through a bit longer and see what was round the corner (free advice: always follow God prompts) :-).
On route to the other area, I was busy topping up my parking payment from my phone, and the photographer was a few steps ahead of me, and she said “Ah no! The very rock that would have been the perfect rock to do these photos from, has graffiti on it! That’s so annoying! We’ll have to find another rock…” I looked up to check out the graffiti and there in front of me, written in chalk, was the most beautiful graffiti my eyes had ever seen, spelling the word “DADDY”, with some drawings around it, very clearly done by a child.
I literally stopped in my tracks and realised that this was absolute perfection! My song (that was the reason for the photoshoot in the first place) is called “Hold me Father”, and Father God has been with me on this 20 year journey of yearning to have that song recorded with an orchestra. Now there He was, prompting us to stay a bit longer and to move further down the beach so that we could discover that word written on the rock and be reminded in the midst of our photoshoot that He was there with us. He had arrived before us. Right place, right time. Chalk doesn’t last. But it felt like Father God wanted it to last long enough so that He could be in my pictures with me in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS. It honestly felt like He had signed His name on the rock so that His signature could be in my pictures, so that He could say “I was there with her, for our Hold me Father photoshoot day” 🙂
And as if that wasn't enough, when I was in South Africa a couple months later capturing some father/daughter film footage for the music video, I decided to go to a beach in Durban, (recommended by my videographer), and the area we decided to take the footage in had a plastic cross sitting in the sand waiting for us when we arrived. God knows its the little details that matter to me, so I love that He has consistently gone out of His way to ensure I know that He is with me every step of this journey. I'm sure He is doing the same for you too, but it requires listening for the God-prompts and stepping out in obedience to follow His voice in order to see the little surprises He loves to give us along the way.
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